The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president yesterday said he foresees “no real difficulty” with a four-day work week as employers generally gave mixed reactions to the idea.

Robert Sands told Tribune Business much work and negotiation was required before such an arrangement is implemented in The Bahamas so as not to unduly burden the private sector with further excessive cost increases, but he did not dismiss the proposal.

Pointing out that adopting a four-day work week would require employees to work four ten-hour days to meet 40 hours for the week, instead of five eight-hour days, he said one required compromise would involve trade unions agreeing not to demand pay “in excess of the standard rate” for those two extra hours per day to minimise the employer cost burden.

“I think there are a number of things that have to be taken into consideration in a four-day work week,” Mr Sands told this newspaper. “In my opinion, it can work if persons work their 40-hours in ten hours per day. For quality of life issues for people with young families, having three days’ off makes a lot of sense in a world where family issues are not as strong as in the past.

“I see no real difficulty with a four-day work week. It has implications in terms of the understanding of trade unions and so forth. Where there are hours worked in excess of the standard hours, you are not paying in excess of the standard rate, for example. There’s a lot of negotiated situations.

“All these things have to be worked out in such a way that companies are not paying a premium for such an approach. When work-life balance is being brought to bear, I see that as being a positive in the workplace and something that can be supported with all the stakeholders,” he added.

“It’s a question of management. It’s just managing your scheduling accordingly. As long as those hours are still being covered they can still be included under these types of arrangement.” However, Debra Symonette, Super Value’s president, was less enthusiastic about the merits of a four-day work week and suggested its implementation would not be practical for food store chains.